I have been beaten by the tricky macaron more times than I care to remember. There was the strawberry macaron mush incident, and then there was the lumpy chocolate macaron fiasco. But not one to sit down and take being beaten quietly (any more), and inspired by the brilliant bakery that is Paul’s where I had a perfect pistachio macaron, I plucked up the courage to give the little devils another go.

It had to be pistachio as the perfect Paul’s macaron was green and glorious and I just had to try recreate it in some way. So I pulled out a bag of the glorious petit green devils, and subjected them to the blades of the little blender, and the game was on.

The basic concept of the macaron is not a complicated one. Ground almonds (and pistachios in his case), sugar and egg whites. Egg whites airy and whipped, gently folded in ground nuts. Pipe into little circles, bake and hey presto, macaron bliss. Or not. So all the prep went smoothly. Consistency seemed right, colour was good, piping was perfect. They baked up rather pretty, although a little wonky I have to confess, but I blame the oven for that. But the consistency was just not right.

Paul macarons are heavy and dense with rich, sweet nuttiness. They are strong and pack a punch. Mine were weak and spineless. The dome of the macarons was hollow. They were empty. How does that happen? Only the macaron gods can tell me. And they aren’t feeling particularly communicative at the moment. Rude and unfair I say. But what can one humble home baker do? They tasted nice, and nobody I fed them to complained at their hollowness. I think the pistachio buttercream helped make up for that.

I am sure that I will re-attempt them at some stage, when I am feeling brave and thick-skinned again. Until then, I am very busy with a project. A big one for me. Gone are the days of the office, and here are the days of self-employed uncertainty. I am starting up my own cupcake business and praying and hoping and wishing that it will take off a little. I’m not greedy, I am not out to be a millionaire, but just enough to keep me busy and keep me in sugar, butter, eggs and red wine. Wish me luck, and all fingers and toes crossed please 🙂 I will post up the website URL when its ready to launch. Until then Sugarbird Cupcakes will remain faceless. Just a rumour on a little, insignificant blog…

What to do:
I like to set my piping bag up in a tall glass so that I can easily transfer the macaroon mixture into the bag. (You’ll need to fit it with a 1cm plain nozzle.
Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking parchment.
Grind the pistachios in a food processor to a fine powder then add the ground almonds, colour and icing sugar and continue to blend until the nuts and icing sugar are completely blended.
Don’t wash up the blender as you’ll need to grind more pistachios for the buttercream below.
Whisk the egg whites in a large, clean bowl to soft peaks. Slowly whisk in the caster sugar until stiff peaks form and the egg whites are glossy.
Now for the ‘macronage’: fold the nut and icing sugar powder into the egg whites until well combined. You’ll end up with quite a thick paste. Be careful not to overmix!
Spoon the mixture into the piping bag and pipe 3cm circles, about 2cm apart onto the baking tray. Rather than pipe in a circlular motion, you need to squeeze the mixture out then whip the nozzle away. The macaroons should flatten out, however, if you’re left with little ‘peaks’, flatten them with a wet finger.
Pick the trays up and carefully drop them onto the counter – this helps the macaroons develop characteristic ‘feet’.
Leave the macaroon shells to dry out for at least 30 minutes. (They’re ready when they’re no longer sticky to the touch). Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 170C.
Bake the macaroons for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely before you try to remove them. If they are really sticky and look hollow underneath, try baking them for 5 more minutes.

For the buttercream, blend the pistachios to a fine powder, then blend again with the icing sugar until you have a pale green powder.
Beat the butter until soft and fluffy then beat in the pistachio icing sugar. If you’re using an electric whisk, I would beat the buttercream for a few minutes to make it really light and fluffy.
You can either spread the buttercream onto the macaroons using a knife or pipe it on for a clean finish.